Đinh La Thăng faces 14 years’ jail

HÀ NỘI — Proposed sentences for 22 defendants involved in serious economic mismanagement and misappropriation at the State-owned oil group were announced by prosecutors yesterday as the high-profile trial enters the open-debate process.

Prosecutor of the Hà Nội People’s Procuracy Đào Thịnh Cường read the arraignment and the recommended penalty for each of the defendants. The harshest suggested penalty was life imprisonment - and the lightest was suspended imprisonment on probation.

Under the Penal Code, Đinh La Thăng, former Politburo member and chairman of PetroVietnam (PVN), would receive 13-14 years in jail on a charge of “deliberate violations of State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences”.

Đào Thịnh Cường from Hà Nội People’s Procuracy, reads the arraignment on the fourth day of a trial into economic mismanagement and embezzlement. — VNA/VNS Photo Doãn Tuấn

“Defendant Thăng has only accepted the responsibility as the leader, but has not acknowledged his legal violations, therefore, a strict punishment is in order,” the prosecutor said.

Meanwhile, Trịnh Xuân Thanh, former chairman of PetroVietnam subsidiary PetroVietnam Construction JSC (PVC), would receive 13-14 years in jail on a charge of violating economic management regulations. He would also get life imprisonment for embezzlement, which would bring his ultimate penalty to life sentence.

Facing punishment on the same charges, Vũ Đức Thuận, former general director of PVC, would receive 8-9 years in jail for economic mismanagement and 18-19 years for embezzlement, bringing his sentence to 26-28 years imprisonment.

The prosecutor has also sought the ’extra’ punishment of a five-year banning against 11 defendants, Đinh La Thăng and Trịnh Xuân Thanh included, from holding managerial positions in State-run economic establishments after they serve their sentences.

The Procuracy also recommended the court return to PVN the amounts of money that the defendants and their families have voluntarily submitted to “remedy the consequences.”

The Procuracy, in addition, asked for an extension of the Ministry of Public Security’s order of restraint on Trịnh Xuân Thanh’s private assets – including an apartment in an upscale urban area in Hà Nội, an apartment in Costa Residences in Nha Trang City, Thanh’s family saving account, and a car – and prevention of any transfers involving these properties. — VNS